This project is focused on the development of an integrated life-cycle framework for ship reliability assessment, redundancy estimation, damage detection, and optimum inspection planning.

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The modeling, assessment, and performance prediction of ship structures over time is by its very nature complex and uncertain. Uncertainty in modeling of structures and randomness in loading phenomena dictate the use of probabilistic methods in life-cycle analysis. Since models that treat this issue are very sensitive to changes in their input parameters, structural health monitoring provides a powerful and necessary mechanism to reduce uncertainty, calibrate, and improve structural assessment and performance prediction models. Ultimately, optimal decisions are to be made that ensure the continuous safety during lifetime of naval ships with minimum associated expected life-cycle cost. Only a properly integrated probabilistic framework can yield such optimum decisions. This framework is under development through the ongoing research at Lehigh University. The research is sponsored by the U.S. Office of Naval Research (ONR) with Dr. Frangopol as the Principal Investigator.